How to convert an NSString into an NSNumber

objective-c nsstring nsnumber primitive-types
Enyra picture Enyra · Sep 19, 2009 · Viewed 417.1k times · Source

How can I convert a NSString containing a number of any primitive data type (e.g. int, float, char, unsigned int, etc.)? The problem is, I don't know which number type the string will contain at runtime.

I have an idea how to do it, but I'm not sure if this works with any type, also unsigned and floating point values:

long long scannedNumber;
NSScanner *scanner = [NSScanner scannerWithString:aString];
[scanner scanLongLong:&scannedNumber]; 
NSNumber *number = [NSNumber numberWithLongLong: scannedNumber];

Thanks for the help.

Answer

Dave DeLong picture Dave DeLong · Sep 19, 2009

Use an NSNumberFormatter:

NSNumberFormatter *f = [[NSNumberFormatter alloc] init];
f.numberStyle = NSNumberFormatterDecimalStyle;
NSNumber *myNumber = [f numberFromString:@"42"];

If the string is not a valid number, then myNumber will be nil. If it is a valid number, then you now have all of the NSNumber goodness to figure out what kind of number it actually is.

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